I Can't Believe These Young Adults Used To Be My Babies

I am so very proud of my children, as most parents are. I know that some Mama birds have to push their babies out of the nest, but not me. I look at the young responsible adults that they are becoming and I find it hard to believe that they are those little babies I gave birth to. It is unreal how fast time passes. I miss my little children. Don't get me wrong I love my young adults, but it is like someone came in and stole my babies. I enjoyed them the most when they were ages two to ten. Everything was an experience, fun and exciting to them. They had not a care in the world. We loved watching them laugh and learn from the most simple little things. They loved it when we would put them in a big laundry basket and pull them up and down the hall. The greatest thing was to ride the motorized pony outside the grocery store, it was better than Disneyland. It didn't take much to make them happy at that age. I see them entering the"real world" and it scares me to death, now that they have mortgages, utilities, insurances, taxes, jobs and the weight of the world building on their shoulders. As a parent the urge to protect them never goes away, but there is no way to protect them from the reality of this world. This sounds crazy but some of my most valued time spent with them was when they were sick. We would lay in bed all day. I would read to them and put a cartoon or a Disney movie in. I would lay cheek to cheek with them so that I could keep an eye on their temperature. The need to care for, to protect, and to nurture is still there, even if the kids aren't. When people ask me if I have any pointers for them, all I can say is cherish every second. Don't get aggravated and send them to bed an hour early, because that is an hour that you can never get back.